Build a Resilience Plan That’s Sustainable

Is your organization as resilient as you think?

Let’s move past the buzzwords and find out.

We’ve all been forced to become more resilient in the wake of the pandemic—as individuals, as employees, as employers and, of course, as organizations. But while all the workshops and town hall discussions are abuzz with great ideas, animated talk, and good intentions, what does it mean to be a truly resilient organization?

We partnered with Economist Impact on a global study of 600 executives across five continents to answer this question. These insights were obtained through survey analysis, desk research, and expert interviews to identify changing interpretations of organizational resilience. Here’s what we uncovered.

No real progress on organizational resilience can be made until we recognize that it requires cross-functional collaboration.

This is the only way to get buy-in up and down the enterprise and across global teams and time zones. However, before that happens, all stakeholders need to agree on what the complex—and often misunderstood—topic of business resilience is.

To be a resilient organization is to be nimble, flexible, and able to withstand both expected and unexpected shocks.

Having recently celebrated our 70th anniversary, we know quite a bit about resiliency.

Edward Greene, Chief Human Resources Officer at Iron Mountain, asserts that “in creating workforce resilience for the future, businesses must prioritize employee well-being above all else. This requires leaders to truly invest in their workforce through accessible career development programs and a genuine understanding of employee needs and goals. Our employees around the world deserve an empathetic, adaptive, and inclusive approach to charting the future of work.”

According to our findings, a sustainable business resilience plan rests on these seven areas, all of which demand a purposeful strategy to ensure your organization stays resilient into the future: